Photos Catch-up - Part 1

Over the past couple of months I've been trying to get out & take some more photos. Having got a DSLR last September - the excellent Canon 450D - I'm only now starting to feel I've got a real grip on what to do technically to get reasonable exposures. I'm now really keen to focus (heh) on the artistry and composition possibilities - which I think will be a life long learning process!

So anyway, herewith some pics...

These were taken down at Hill Head earlier in May. It was a horrible grotty afternoon/evening - I'd been out sailing earlier in the day and had got thoroughly cold & miserable in the rain. Luckily just as I came in, exhausted, the rain cleared up so I got changed quickly to take some pics. These guys were sailing at the western end of Hill Head beach & coming in quite close to the drainage outfall where I could stand.

It was really rather dark & gloomy by that point of the afternoon and I think the AF in the camera was struggling - these photos all seemed a little blurred. I was shooting in Tv mode at about 1/640 or faster to freeze the motion but the images were very dark - I had to really ramp the brightness up in Lightroom. This has introduced noise, unfortunately!

This chap was kind enough to sail straight at me whilst pulling off a neat body-drag - quite an old-skool trick but still looks good.

The next morning at Hayling Island was a much nicer day - very unexpected sunshine but still cold for May, I was in my winter wetsuit and nowhere near too hot! I had a good couple of hours sailing before running out of energy - several months of no exercise hasn't done me much good. At least it gave me the chance to take some pics and have a chat with some mates from the Boards forums...

I really liked the forward loop sequence of which this photo is a part - a brighter day, fast shutter speed, AF Servo and continuous shot mode delivered good results. However, I still need to get more conscious of framing when tracking moving subjects - this would have looked a lot better with the whole sailor, board & rig in the shot!

I was lucky enough here to get the brightness of the sun in the foreground, and especially off the sail & the spray, whilst the background was conveniently darkened by a passing cloud. Very useful!

That's all for now but there's plenty more photos so stay tuned for a Part 2 - and some pictures that aren't of windsurfing!